Althouse: The econopocalypse, in pictures.

March 19, 2009

The econopocalypse, in pictures.

Scenes from the recession.

(Via Boing Boing.)

15 comments:

TMink said...: I prefer to refer to this mess as the Obamalypse.

Trey; 3/19/09, 8:22 AM
rhhardin said...: Meanwhile Vicki starts the day with a new toy.

I don't have a TV so she is so far unaware of the global economic disaster.

You can probably read the economic future in the entrails of stuffed dog toys.; 3/19/09, 8:28 AM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Yes, but investment bankers received lower bonuses, why no pictures of them?

I'm starting to wonder about the death penalty for white collar crime, deterrent effect you know.; 3/19/09, 8:31 AM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: The most telling picture on this narrative is the unused newspaper stands. They are afraid because they have become irrelevant, and need, desperately to gain relevance again. It is ironic that they continue to look longinly to the past, but not the times when things were better, but much worse than now.

I mean, things are definitely bad, but do they merit this sort of photo montages? Didn't job fairs used to atract thousands even when things were better? Weren't eveictions being served daily across the country? Did they get coverage?; 3/19/09, 8:34 AM
MadisonMan said...: I thought the most interesting picture had the green growing grass in the terrace between the sidewalk and the road, and everything else is brown and dusty.; 3/19/09, 8:57 AM
Bissage said...: (1) Gee, looks like things are tough all over . . .

(2) Pets or meat . . .

(3) OH NOOOOES!!1!!!11!!!!; 3/19/09, 9:04 AM
Kylos said...: Most of these pictures really don't tell a story without the included caption. Half of the photos were of unfinished construction sites which you'd never know were abandoned or slowed down without a caption explaining it. During the housing boom, you'd find scenes like that all the time. And job fairs are nothing new. The only picture to really even express any depression was the cliched chained and padlocked door of the foreclosed home. An unconvincing photo-essay.; 3/19/09, 9:09 AM
Kylos said...: Bissage, about the only good part in Roger and Me, though in all my years at Flint I never had rabbit stew. If I recall correctly, a roommate did cook up a squirrel though. Those things were as big as cats.; 3/19/09, 9:14 AM
TitusMyLipchins said...: There was a story in NPR where some artists were moving into these rundown neighborhoods in Detroit and paying like $500.00 for a house. I think it said the average price of a house in Detroit is somewhere around $19,000; 3/19/09, 9:25 AM
TitusMyLipchins said...: I think Time magazine had a bunch of pictures of Detroit. Abandoned offices, schools, homes, skyscrapers. What a fucking mess that city must be.

It was totally depressing. And it still has like 900,000 people living there.

Its sad when you see a city that was once bustling and interesting go bust.

I am great, how are you? that's good.; 3/19/09, 11:18 AM
An Edjamikated Redneck said...: That's the best they can do?

One family forced to live in a $1200 a month hotel room and One man living in a tent?

Out of a country of over 300 million?

Call me back when we ths is really a crisis.; 3/19/09, 11:19 AM
Jane said...: They ought to include a picture of the plant for which I recently spent a year and a half with my company designing and installing some fairly innovative production equipment.

There, I am a narcissist too. Perhaps an American: I design 'innovative' machines.

So, everything was installed and tickety-poo, but all you hear now in the neighbourhood are crickets.

Financing and markets both evaporated amazingly quickly, with the company seemingly heading for receivership. At least the engineering firm I worked for (and I) got paid. Now, I'm redundant, so it's my former employer.

I can't tell you more, because, as Titus pinches his loaf, I tend to shit non-disclosures. But that shuttered facility and all the equipment now under storage cover would make a fairly grim photo if anyone cares about ever making anything outside of China.; 3/19/09, 12:07 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: hey, losergrrl, no one is denying that these are difficult economic times, just like others before. I was "redundant" in 2005, while you were designing "innovative machinery" or probably still in college. Before that, I was "redundant" in 2000 when the dotcom bubble burst. Where was my photo op?? I still don't understand this obsession with trying to make themselves, and us, feel like we are living in 1934. This silly and counterproductive romatization of economic depression is really stupid.

What are they trying to do? Paint the worst possible picture so that The Messiah (PBUH) comes out looking like a miraculous savior when things get better even if they weren't really that bad to beging with? Or is it their own sense of doom in their industry as I said above? Is it, as you say, pure narcissism?; 3/19/09, 1:50 PM
The Dude said...: Loser girl - you need to go back to whatever country you came from and leave American jobs for Americans to do. What's that you say? Your benighted piece of crap hell hole country of origin doesn't have any jobs either? Things are crapity-poo or however you put it? Well, that's foo tucking bad.; 3/19/09, 5:30 PM
Kylos said...: I think this photo encapsulates the scarcity of jobs better than job fair shots in this essay.; 4/1/09, 8:59 PM